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______ _____ _______ HAWAII MEDICAL JOURNj. November 1999 Volume 58, No. 11 ISSN: 0017-8594 I I I I I q I Memorial Issue on 1’ Thomas J. Whelan, Jr. MD 1921 — 1999 Some plans promise you a voice. HMSA delivers. As a nonprofit mutual benefit society HMSA looks to leaders from all areas of our community to help guide our Association. Our volunteer board of directors is made up of people from the community. business, labor, government, the clergy and, yes, medicine. Of our 27 directors, seven are Hawaii practicing physicians. As members of our board and numerous advisory committees, doctors have a say in almost everything we do. LL4ISA. 7ozv I\ thu t’s a lzea Ith plan. FIIE Blue Cross I 7?’ HAWAII MEDICAL Contents JOURNAL (USPS 237-640) Editorial Norman Goldstein MD 292 Published monthly by the Hawaii Medical Association In Memorium Incorporated in 1856 under the Monarchy J. Judson McNamara MD and Christal Whelan 293 1360 South Beretania, Second Floor Honolulu, Hawaii 96814 Phone (808) 536-7702; Fax (808) 528-2376 Letters to the Editor 296 Editors Editor: Norman Goldstein MD News Editor: Henry N. Yokoyama MD Conthbuting Editor: Russell T. Stodd MD Medical School Hotline Satoru Izutsu PhD 298 Editorial Board Vincent S. Aoki MD, Benjamin W. Berg MD, Dr. Whelan John Breinich MLS, Satoru Izutsu PhD, 302 James Lumeng MD, Douglas G. Massey MD, Peter Barcia MD Myron E. Shirasu MD, Frank L. Tabrah MD, Alfred D. Moths MD HALIA ALOHA e Dr. Thomas Whelan Noa Emmett Aluli MD 306 Journal Staff Managing Editor: Becky Kendro Editorial Assistant: Drake Chinen Thomas Joseph Whelan Jr. MD, A Remembrance Sharon Whelan Weiss MD 308 Officers President: James Lumeng MD President-Elect: Philip Hellreich MD Secretary: Philip Hellreich MD Eulogy for Thomas J. Whelan Treasurer: Charles R. Kelley MD Sally Whelan 310 Paul DeMare MD Past President: Patricia L. Chinn MD Dr. Thomas J. Whelan.. .the finest surgeon Margaret Lee MD 312 County Presidents Yeu-Tsu Hawaii: David Camacho MD Honolulu: Cedric K. Akau MD Maui: Michael Savona MD West Hawaii: Ali Bairos MD Classified Notices 317 Kauai: Patrick Aiu MD Advertising Representative News and Notes Roth Communications Henry N. Yokovama MD 314 2040 Alewa Drive Honolulu, Hawaii 96817 Phone (808) 595-4124 Fax (808) 595-5087 Weathervane Russell T. StoddMD 318 The Journal cannot be held responsible for opinions-expressed in papers. discussion, communications or advertisements. The ad vertising policy of the Hawaii Medicaiiournal is governed by the rules of the Council on Drugs of the American Medical Associa tion. The right is reserved to reject material submitted for editorial or advertising columns. The Hawaii Medical Journal (USPS 237640) is published monthly by the Hawaii Medical Association (ISSN 0017-8594). 1360 South Beretania Street. Second Floor, Honolulu, Hawaii 96814. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Hawaii Medical Cover art by Dietrich Varez, Volcano, Hawaii. All rights Journal, 1360 South Beretania Street. Second Floor, Honolulu. Hawaii 96814. Periodical postage paid at Honolulu, Hawaii. reserved by the artist. Nonmember subscriptions are $25. Copyright 1999 by the Hawaii Medical Association. Printed in the U.S. L HAWAN MED WAL JOURNAL, VOL 58, NOVEMBER 1999 291 Editorial Norman Goldstein MD Editor, Hawaii Medical Journal Thomas Joseph Whelan, Jr. MD (1921-1999) Hawaii has been very fortunate to have had the knowledge, experi ence, and teachings of Tom Whelan for 30 of his 78 years. I was fortunate to have met Tom at an American College of Physicians meeting in San Francisco in 1964. Dr. Mel Chetlin. Chief of Cardiology at Tripler, asked me, as Assistant Chief of Dermatology OAHU: 941-4411 at Tripler at the time, to meet Colonel Whelan and help convince him to come to Tripler. It didn’t take much arm twisting to entice Tom NEIGHBOR ISLANDS TOLL-FREE: to transfer from Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington DC to Tripler General Hospital. 1-800-362-3585 The rest is history, some of it detailed in this Special Memorial Issue of the Journal with admiration and aloha by his former Free Hotline 24 Hours a Day. students, residents, and associates: Bradley Wong MD, Peter Barcia MD, Emmett Aluli MD, Colonel Yeu-Tsu Margaret Lee MD. POISON CENTER TIPS Tom Whelan had a phenomenal career in the military, and in civilianluniversity as well. He was an administrator and a teacher • Keep the number of the Hawaii Poison Center on par excellence. He helped us bridge the Town & Gown and the or near your telephone. military and civilian elements of medicine in Hawaii and the Pacific. Tom and Norma were blessed with six children (see the family • If you suspect a poisoning, do not wait for signs photo on page 309). Daughters Chnstal, Sharon and Sally share in and symptoms to develop. Call the Hawaii Poison their love and affection for their Dad in their remembrances and the Center immediately. Eulogy. As Sharon says, her Dad was a real “Mensch.” Mahalo for • Always keep sharing your husband and father with us. Ipecac Syrup in your home. (This is used person vomit One man can make a difference in our world. Tom Whelan was to make a in certain types of that man. poisoning.) Do use Ipecac Syrup unless advised by the Hawaii Poison Center. The Mamiya Medical Heritage Center • Store all medicines, chemicals, and household products out of reach and out of sight, preferably locked up. Richard Mamiya MD is another outstanding man who continues to difference make a in Hawaii Medicine. • A good rule to teach children is to “always ask Thanks to a major contribution from Richard, The Hawaii Medi first” before eating or drinking anything—don’t cal Library has established a Heritage Center including a Repository touch, don’t smell, don’t taste. for Rare Books; The Archives of the Hawaii Medical Association; Honolulu County Medical Society artifacts and instruments, “oral histories,” a photo collection; and files ofover 2,500 physicians who Donate to help us save lives. have or are currently practicing in Hawaii. Mail checks, payable to: Since the Journal is not able to publish Special Memorial Issues Hawaii Poison Center for every worthy physician, the Heritage Center wants to expand its 1319 Punahou Street, Honolulu, HI 96826 files, and will be contacting you soon for your biography, photos, tapes, etc. to be included in the Mamiya Medical Heritage Center. HAWAII MEDICAL JOURNAL. VOL 58. NOVEMBER 1999 292 In Memorium Dr. Thomas Whelan — preeminent surgeon and former Chairman of Dr. Whelan was widely known for his expertise in war wounds Surgery, University of Hawaii School of Medicine — died in Hono and trauma surgery. Following the Second World War, he was lulu on September 10, 1999, of complications following hip replace engaged in a project to find methods to repair arteries damaged by ment surgery. various injuries, especially wartime munitions. These multiple A native of Lynn, Massachusetts, Dr. Whelan attended Philips fragment wounds produced by high-velocity weapons caused tre Academy at Andover and received both BA and MD degrees from mendously greater tissue destruction than civilian wounds. Injuries Yale University. During these years he dis to the popliteal artery behind the knee were tinguished himself academically as a scholar common and resulted in mandatory above- cum laude and in the baseball diamond as the-knee amputations. Dr. Whelan devel Yale’s Captain in ‘43. While in medical oped techniques to repair these arteries. When school he married his high school flame — the Korean War erupted, he was sent to the Norma Gianascol. They were blessed with front in North Korea and involved in the six children: Sharon, Thomas III. Rosemary, creation of the first mobile army surgical Sally, Christal, and Michael. hospital, or MASH unit. He applied these After completing his internship and resi new techniques there which resulted in a dency in Surgery at Strong Memorial Hospi salvage rate of about 80 percent. Given his tal in Rochester, New York, Dr. Whelan specialization in trauma surgery, Whelan began an illustrious thirty-year career in the was one of the few doctors sent by Walter U.S. Army Medical Corps. He taught gen Reed Hospital on its mercy mission to Chile eral and vascular surgery while serving as in 1960. He set up a field hospital just hours chief of surgery at Walter Reed Army Hos after the first earthquake shocks devastated pital in Washington D.C., and operated on part of that South American country. many dignitaries there including General One ofWhelan’s seminal works — “Man Douglas MacArthur, Mamie Eisenhower, agement of War Wounds” — published in and Senator Strom Thurmond. He was also Advances in Surgery, prompted the Army assigned by President Johnson to attend to Surgeon General to select Dr. Whelan as the Senator Edward M. Kennedy at Cooley editor-in-chief of a project to update the Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, when Thomas J. Whelan Jr. MD Emergency War Surgery Handbook. This he was critically wounded in a plane crash. 1921 — 1999 new edition incorporated new surgical infor Dr. Whelan later held the same position at mation learned during the Korean and Viet Tripler Medical Center in Hawaii where he was promoted to nam conflicts and included chapters on aeromedical evacuation, Brigadier General in 1969. He became one of only three Army mass casualties in thermonuclear warfare, and reoperative abdomi surgeons elected to membership in the American Surgical Associa nal surgery. In 1973 the revised U.S. Handbook was presented to a tion. committee at NATO and within forty-eight hours unanimously Known internationally as a consummate clinician and a brilliant accepted as the basis of the new edition for NATO Nations.